Empowering Enterprises with the Convergence of 5G and AI Data Cloud Platforms

Data is at the heart of any successful, modern business. The average organization produces a massive amount of it through everyday operations alone, from buildings to assets and activities. If applied correctly, that data has the potential to transform fortunes — and entire industries. 

However, data in business contains a paradox: If used well it can help you overcome major challenges — but doing so can be a major challenge in itself. The question is: How do you turn huge amounts of structured, unstructured and semi-structured data into actionable and timely insights?

Traditional IT infrastructures tend to creak under the weight of this much information. And as we see valuable unstructured data in particular coming from more and more sources — including drones, edge devices and Internet of Things sensors — applying data at the speed and scale expected requires new capabilities and a new approach to data exploration. 

The big technologies driving change 

The data landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and new technologies are redefining the parameters of what is possible. 

Today, 5G, AI and connected data collaboration can each be used to transform data operations and uncover new opportunities for decision-making and operational efficiency. But by combining these technologies, you can experience benefits far greater than the sum of their parts — sending complex data to the cloud in real time for analysis and exploration. 

High-performing programmable 5G networks

Data transfer speeds are integral to gaining insights when they’re needed — especially for those using edge devices in business-critical use cases. 5G networks deliver speed in abundance, enabling large data streams and instant processing. But Ericsson’s high-performing programmable networks also address one of the biggest challenges in this area: how to allocate network resources on demand to support business-critical tasks. 

High-performing programmable networks are intent-driven, AI-powered and service-aware. They’re specifically designed to dynamically allocate resources based on individual needs and without manual intervention, which means ultra-low latency times for critical applications and bandwidth for data-intensive tasks. It’s more than just speed; it’s a dynamic, AI-powered resource for the future — and it’s all supported by enhanced security features that help ensure integrity from edge devices to cloud storage. 

Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud

Of course, a data strategy isn’t just about pulling data from all your various systems and devices. You also need to store, consolidate and share that data, which is easier said than done when you have solutions from multiple vendors leading to siloed activities.  

Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud provides a central, connected platform for all data activities, including AI model deployment, unstructured data processing and analysis — so you have all your data where you need it, when you need it. In doing so, it helps organizations eliminate data silos, effectively collaborate on data across the organization and simplify architectures so they can more efficiently get value from their data. 

Beyond scalable storage, data sharing and compute, Snowflake enables easy, secure access to live, ready-to-use third-party data, applications and AI products through Snowflake Marketplace. And with built-in governance and security controls, teams can confidently manage data across internal and external sources. In fact, it’s the same solution that underpins Ericsson’s own data architecture.

Snowflake also provides its own fully managed AI capabilities in Snowflake Cortex AI. AI and machine learning offer incredible promise for deriving insight, with the ability to parse data at a far faster rate than humanly possible and identify patterns that wouldn’t otherwise be seen.

When combined with Ericsson’s 5G capabilities, organizations can deploy AI to analyze structured and unstructured data in real time, so hidden trends can become timely insights. 

Cortex AI provides access to top-tier LLMs from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, OpenAI and more — all securely within Snowflake — so organizations, across the telecom industry and beyond, can move faster from insight to action using the most advanced models in the market.

Bringing best-of-breed solutions together

High-performing programmable networks dynamically allocate resources for business-critical applications, Snowflake can provide a secure, scalable and governed platform needed to aggregate, process and analyze the vast volumes of data generated in enterprise systems.

By leveraging network APIs, Snowflake helps operationalize data faster — supporting use cases such as predictive maintenance, network resource optimization and closed-loop automation. With Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, telecom providers can seamlessly share data across organizational and partner boundaries, enabling data collaboration that unlocks new monetization models and supports the delivery of differentiated 5G services with performance and security.

Together, Ericsson and Snowflake have proven their capability to bring a modern, data-driven 5G architecture to market — one that accelerates innovation, enhances operational agility and delivers on the promise of low-latency, high-bandwidth applications at global scale.

With the combination of these technologies, you can gain a single source of truth, enable near real-time decision-making and achieve improved operational efficiency.

Real-world benefits — for every industry

The convergence between these technologies can have an astounding impact across numerous industries. As in our demonstration, 5G-connected drones equipped with LiDAR sensors can stream footage to AI programs in real time, where that data can then be analyzed. This can bring new levels of efficiency and accuracy to things such as asset maintenance, disaster response or traffic management — the opportunities are almost endless. 

With this approach, we can create a fundamental step change in how organizations process data and make decisions. We can eradicate data silos, enable the real-time analysis of huge, unstructured data streams and provide new possibilities and opportunities across industries that rely on accurate, real-time data. 

The key — much like combining data from different sources to identify new insights — is in combining these capabilities to unlock new levels of performance.  

Learn more at the Snowflake AI Data Cloud for Telecom.